Benefits of the HOA Bill (Now Dead)

Because Bill S.1176 would have been an antidote to HOA mismanagement in developer-controlled communities, CTB hopes to see an HOA bill reintroduced in the legislature next year. The bill phase elected homeowners on to the HOA Board of Directors as follows:

Most important, passage of S.1176 would have allowed homeowners to keep a watchful eye on how an HOA spends our money. The bill, fair to both homeowners and developers, also would have provided additional benefits, including the following:

Enable elected homeowners to learn their duties, responsibilities, and issues relevant to wise management of the HOA Board of Directors.

Give homeowners time to learn about past and present functions and issues of the HOA before the developer completes construction and exits a community (especially important in large, complex communities where HOA governance equals that of a small city).

Allow homeowners to oversee the finances and documents relating to their HOAs.

Remove the veil of secret governance in this state and afford homeowners the right to see, access, and assess actions and documents relating to their community and its HOA activities.

Deflect any conflict of interest created when a developer-controlled Board makes key financial decisions for the homeowners they supposedly represent.

Give homeowner-Board members the authority to designate HOA funds for expert appraisals of common properties so that flawed assets will not be transitioned to the homeowner-funded HOA as the developer completes construction and leaves a community.

Prohibit the developer from negotiating repair costs of assets with his own appointed Board members (a blatant conflict of interest) before he makes the final transition of all common assets to an owner-controlled HOA.